The In and Out of Faith

Luke 18:1-8

“Pray always and do not lose heart.”.

Jesus of Nazareth was a man of prayer.  Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus praying.  He goes away to a mountain or a quiet place to be in prayer.  He prays as he casts out demons and heals people.  Throughout the Gospel of John, he is in regular dialogue with the Father.  He teaches his disciples to pray.

Prayer is the heart of the Christian life.  Our faith in Jesus draws us deep into the faith of Jesus.  We pray alone in our rooms, listening for the whispering of the Holy Spirit.  We pray together in times of worship and praise.  We pray for those in any need, and for the healing of the world.

“And will not God grant justice to his chose ones?”

Jesus of Nazareth was a man of justice.  He reached out with compassion and care to those who were rejected and shunned in his society.  He challenged the power and perspectives of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the scribes and the rulers of his day by proclaiming the Reign of God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness.  He taught his disciples to care for the sick and the naked, the hungry and thirsty, the imprisoned and the stranger.

For Christians, working for justice means more than just jumping on the bandwagon of the latest issue to come down the road.  It means doing all we can to discern and practice the will of God and the way of Jesus in both our personal and public lives.  It means striving to embody the Reign of God’s love, grace, mercy and forgiveness in the midst of all our relationships and as we engage the brokenness of our world.  Working for justice is about persistence in our efforts to change hearts and minds and systems of power and privilege that perpetuate that brokenness.

Faith draws us in to the depths of who we are as God’s beloved children.  Faith drives God’s people out in loving service as God’s ambassadors of reconciliation in the world.   Without the Faith that draws us inward, we lose our moorings and can get lost in the turmoil of the world.  Without the Faith that drives us out, we lose our mission and can get lost in our own selfishness.   Faith gathers and sends, gathers and sends, gathers and sends God’s people.  This life of faith isn’t always easy, in fact, it can be a real struggle!   But, in this way of life true joy can be found.  Why?   Because it forever turns around the Word of God which is Jesus Christ our Lord.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading!  

Start with "A"

Luke 17:11-19

This week’s text, which tells the story of Jesus’ healing of ten lepers, is also appointed as the lesson for Thanksgiving.   In the story, one of the healed lepers returns to Jesus after he realizes he has been healed, praising God and thanking Jesus for the gift of health, wholeness and restoration.  He is so overwhelmed with gratitude that he falls on his face at Jesus’ feet.

These days, words of gratitude and thanksgiving seem rare.  We are so much quicker to point out what is wrong with the world, to complain about what isn’t working, and to bemoan the fact that things just aren’t what they used to be.   The only news seems to be bad news.   We cry, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” and then go about our daily lives barely aware that God may actually be doing something to heal us.  If only faith would open our eyes like it did for the leper who returned!

I had one of those eye opening experiences many, many years ago when I was an intern pastor.  That Thanksgiving, my supervisor decided not to preach, but, instead, handed out sheets of paper with the letters of the alphabet listed vertically on the left margin.  He asked everyone to list the things we were thankful for:  “a – apples,”  “b – bikes,”  “c – children,”  and so on.   After a few minutes passed, he had us shout out our answers letter by letter.  It was a litany of gratitude.   Together we built this wonderful compendium of blessings and wrapped ourselves up in it.  Our lists became hymns of praise.

Cultivating gratitude does not mean ignoring the reality of pain, injustice and suffering in our world.  It does not mean thinking we are somehow better or more deserving than others.  Cultivating gratitude is about cultivating a sense of God’s power and presence at work in our lives and learning how to see it at work in the lives of others.  Gratitude overflows in generosity.  A spirit of generosity moves us away from ourselves and toward the neighbor in need.   Moving toward the neighbor in need brings us face to face with God.  The more we see God in the face of another, the more we will see that person as a blessing.   And, it’s when we begin to see each other as a blessing…  blemishes and all…  that the real healing begins. 

So, what are you grateful for these days?  Where do you see God’s healing hand at work?   What moves you to fall on your face in praise and thanksgiving?   I suggest you start with the letter “a”…

Peace,

Bishop Mike

In the Potluck Line

Luke 17:5-10

When I was a parish pastor, I always waited to go last at congregation potluck dinners.  It seemed appropriate for the servant to be served last.  (And, it meant getting to clean out all the pans!)  Humility is a Christian virtue, and I was taught the importance of humility growing up.  Now, as bishop, when I visit a congregation, I am always invited to go first at potlucks.  I understand that is a sign of honor and respect, but it always makes me feel uncomfortable.  I hope the day never comes when I expect it or worse, think I deserve it!   But, the danger is always there.  Our egos as human beings can so easily become inflated!    

Jesus has a wonderful way of lifting up and encouraging those the world has crushed and bringing down those the world has puffed up.  Jesus challenges both false humility (those who are proud of their great humility) and false egos (those who project a big ego to protect a weak self-image).  In the end, we all need to be reminded that it is not what we do or don’t do, or how much or how little faith we have, or how much we accomplish or fail at in life that determines our worth in God’s eyes.

In this week’s Gospel, Jesus is both encouraging the apostles who are feeling inadequate to their task, and reminding them that the life of discipleship is not about being rewarded for their good works and efforts. In verses 1-4 of chapter 17, Jesus talks about stumbling blocks and forgiveness.   In response, the apostles plead with Jesus to increase their faith.  Forgiving someone who hurts you seven times a day seems impossible!  But, Jesus says, even a little faith is powerful stuff!  On the other hand, he teaches that a slave who expects special treatment for doing his or her duty is probably expecting too much. 

There is a balance here that is important for us to understand as we think about our own Christian lives.  As servants of Christ, we should never think less of ourselves than who we are.  It is not our faith that saves us, but Christ’s.  Because of Christ, we have been given what we need to go out into the world as Christ’s ambassadors of love, grace and forgiveness.  On the other hand, as servants of Christ, we cannot think more of ourselves than who we are either.  Our good works of love, grace and forgiveness will not save us, and certainly will not exempt us from the struggles, trials and challenges of human life.  Our faith does not put us above anyone, but calls us to accompany one another as brothers and sisters on the way.

Now that I think about it, maybe it’s best to be in the middle of the line at the potluck.  Or better yet, to stop worrying about it all together, and just do what we can to make sure all God’s children have a place at the table.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading!

The Bottom Line

Luke 16:1-13

During the summers through college and into seminary, I worked as a sales representative for Northrup King Garden Seed Co all across the Upper Midwest.  My job was to call on retail stores that sold our garden seeds, inventory the displays, collect for what had been sold, take the order for the next year and ship the displays and unsold product back to the company.    I learned a lot doing that job.  I learned how to organize my time efficiently, work with customers, deal with concerns and issues, track sales, work with shipping companies, and many other things.  The company’s mantra, drilled into us during our annual training, continues to reverberate through my life, “plan your work…  work your plan.”   The congregation where I served my first call, Mount Zion Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, WI, was made up of many members who worked in the business community as managers, CFOs, CEOs and business owners.   I learned a lot from them about management, HR, budgeting, finance, planning and leadership.  To this day, I continue to value insights from the business community and regularly read books from that world.

But, the church is not, NOT, a business.  While I believe we can learn a lot from the business world (and from other “worlds” outside the church) the minute we start to run the church with a “bottom line” mentality, we get into serious trouble.   The minute we start thinking that the measure of mission and ministry is the number of people we can get in the pews, the size of our offerings, or the growth of our institutions, we become slaves to the wrong master.   Focusing on the bottom line – however we measure it -- drives us toward scarcity thinking, survival strategizing and viewing people as means to an end rather than as beloved children of God.  In a consumer focused and consumer driven culture, it is easy, very easy, to get caught up in this kind of thinking without even noticing it.

While I don’t pretend to understand the subtleties of the economics at play in this week’s text,  I think I get Jesus’ point.  This is a cautionary tale.   While it suggests that we can learn something from the way the “children of this age” manage “dishonest wealth” it warns that we need to be careful not to be co-opted by it.  

The bottom line of Christ’s Church is not profit (members, dollars, programs, buildings, etc.), but service.  The bottom line of discipleship is not what we gather, but what we give away.  Remember, Jesus said that to find our lives we need to loose them!   This measure of ministry and mission leads to celebrating God’s abundance,  strategizing generosity, and walking alongside God’s beloved children wherever we find them:  both inside and outside the church walls.   This measure of ministry and mission leads not to shrewd plans, and clever schemes to attract people to the church, but to acts of love which embrace all people and all things as amazing and wonderful blessings from our gracious Creator.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading!